Santa Barbara, California: Day 2

Odometer: 131–389 (258) miles

Listen to: “California One / Youth And Beauty Brigade” — The Decemberists

I am pure exhaustion, personified. After 9 hours spent sitting on the scooter today, with just an hour’s break for lunch, all I want to do right now is collapse in a bed. As I write this, I’m finishing a steak salad and a surprisingly delicious Sierra Nevada seasonal (Pat-Rye-Ot American Pale), but when the check comes, I’m signing it so fast my signature will look even worse than its usual scribble, high tailing it to my AirBnB, and passing out.

Turns out I’m learning a lot about calculating distance and endurance on the scooter. Though the total mileage for the day only clocks in at around 250, a good deal of that was through the cliffside switchbacks of Big Sur, where I was moving at around 30mph. Any faster and I would’ve plummeted into the Pacific. Naturally, I took it easy through there, meaning I was on the road for way longer than I intended.

Regardless, it was a gorgeous day. Big Sur is one of the most awe-inspiring places in America; when you see it, you have to catch your breath. Which is good. Given the drop after the guardrail is something like 400 feet, your brain needs all the oxygen you can give it. Naturally, I listened to The Decemberists’ “California One” and Death Cab’s “Bixby Canyon Bridge” as I was coming up on the series of 1930s WPA bridges that mark the start of Big Sur. I’ve been here four times now and that’s enough for me to pretty confidently say: this place will never stop impressing me.

Coming out of Big Sur was a stop to check in on the elephant seals at Piedras Blancas. The last few times I’ve seen them has been during mating season, when the male seals (weighing up to 5,500lbs) are fighting. Today, they were mostly just lounging around in the sun, occasionally stopping to cover themselves up in sand. Have to say: last time was more exciting. Still, elephant seals are adorable in a weird, you-could-definitely-kill-me-in-three-seconds sorta way, so that was fun.

Next was Morro Bay. There’s a huge rock maybe 50 feet from the shoreline, and the entire city seems to be built around it; the buildings radiate outward from the rock, starting with restaurants and shops and fading into sleepy residential areas. I’ve always been enamored with this place, half because it’s a gorgeous little seaside town, and half because there’s something almost primal about building a city around a huge rock structure, something that evokes pagans and stone circles.

As I crested a hill outside of Vandenberg Air Force Base, I caught a glimpse of the launchpad where I watched Landsat 8 go to orbit several years ago. You can see it for miles, a bright-white structure on a grassy hill.

After Vandenberg came Lompoc, where I took some photos of an abandoned drive in theater. Back in my trips across Route 66 in Oklahoma, I got pretty adept at trespassing into abandoned theaters; if I had more time, I would’ve liked to poke around, but I knew at that point I was already running very late.

The sun set right when Highway One turned into the 101. Out across the Pacific, I saw huge oil rigs lit up bright against the purple sky. I had forgotten offshore drilling was even allowed in California*, so it was somewhat surprising to see these massive, alien things hulking just off the coast. That was pretty much my only scenery as I pulled into Santa Barbara, checked into my Airbnb, and went off in search of food.

Have gotten a few questions from y’all, so I’ll try to answer them here.

FIRST! Rebecca asked: When you were dreaming it up, what was the hardest decision to make? What was talking to your employer like? Are you AirBnB’ing the whole way, and are you sponsored by Vespa/AirBnB?

The hardest decision was probably deciding to leave a place that felt like home and a job that felt the same. I really love the Bay Area, so being away from my friends for eight months to a year is a pretty hard choice to make. Talking to Twitter was shockingly easy? Everyone was super nice about the entire thing, and while they seemed sad to see me go, I think they understood why I was doing this.

I’m doing a combo of AirBnBs and cheap motels. So far, out on the West Coast, AirBnB’s are way cheaper than motels, so it’s been all AirBnBs so far. This’ll likely change as I get into the midwest where there are fewer AirBnBs and more motels. As far as sponsorships go, I don’t have any, but hey, maybe y’all should @ mention @VespaUSA and tell them about this whole thing :).

Crystal asked: Why are you doing this completely ridiculous thing at all? What inspired you to move on from Twitter and what are your goals after your worldwide adventure?

I’ve always wanted to see the entire US by motorcycle. Something about that is really appealing to me; driving in a car always seems passive and easy, where on a motorcycle, it takes effort and planning. There might be things that are hard. You don’t have AC. You have to work around wind and storms. It seems like more of an accomplishment to do it.

As far as what inspired me to move on from Twitter, I realized I was just doing pure engineering and software development, when my career goals are more oriented towards a combination of engineering, product, and design (hence the whole grad school for human-computer interaction thing). Twitter’s a lovely company full of lovely people, but all their product people and designers are way more competent than I am at that specific focus, such that having someone who does engineering most of the time also contribute to product seems like a net loss of productivity. I’m hoping to find a place that’s small enough where I can contribute to that.

FEEL FREE TO KEEP THE QUESTIONS COMING!! If you’re curious about anything, just let me know.

Tomorrow is LA and catching up with a number of friends (see you soon Tayln, Pfal, Nicholas, Stephanie, and Rob!). I’ll be staying in LA for a couple of days, so I may skip writing one of these tonight, and just write a summary after I leave.

Till later,

-Esten

*a wiki search told me that new leases are on a long-term hold, while old ones are still allowed to be developed